To think the police are bloody useless?

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

We ended up stuck in the middle of the rioting at Notting Hill Carnival last night.

It was bloody terrifying, the police wouldn't let us through to get away.

They also just kept pointlessly charging backwards and forwards. There were literally hundreds of them, why couldn't they do anything?

We saw a policeman kicking a random boy who, like us, had got innocently caught up in it.

I'm really angry about it, I've got footage on my mobile that I want to send to the police but I doubt they will be interested.

Personally I think it should be ticketed, they block of most of the roads anyway and this way people could pay to go and the money could be spent on policing / stewarding etc.

Impossible though really, and against the 'ethos' of the whole thing.

Exactly TDWP, It is impossible, the Police don't have much say in what goes on are just have to fight a losing battle against rioting, only to then have the general public that aren't causing trouble, slag them off for their efforts.
Damned if they do.

We live right by Perry Barr park which is where the Birmingham Carnival ends up every year.
Every year our road is closed to cars and we have gangs (and I mean GANGS) strolling up and down the street.

Its very intimidating, once it gets dark its bloody horrendous.

VS can you not see my anger that we were held, against our will, in a dangerous situation? As were many other people.

We clearly were not involved in the trouble, one of my friends was crying hysterically.

I understand the plice were shocked as they did not expect this situation, but surely they are trained to deal with things like this? You really had to be there. They were either standing and doing nothing, laughing and joking about paperwork or charging up and down for no apparant reason.

Thankfully once riot police arrived we were let out.

What should they have done then?
Let you out into the furore?

I've been told to stay somewhere against my will before, whilst with DD who was weeks old, by police on horseback, because they were escorting footy fans to the train station.

TO KEEP ME SAFE.

They were keeping us in the middle of it, the trouble was happening at one side and they didn't let us out on the other side.

After seeing bloodied policemen I didn't feel in any way safe because we were near them.

It was awful all round, and I do feel bad for those that got injured. It just really seemed like they had no plan. Surely at an event like this they would have all sorts of plans in place?

How is a doorway the middle of it?
In a doorway surrounded by police, you were safe, if they had started letting people go off in either direction they would have risked it spilling out even further into the streets.

The plan would've been to keep it contained. You can't feasibly expect the police to be able to do their jobs to the best of their ability when people won't do as they are told and instead of just standing still waiting til the police say it's safe to go start getting hysterical.

There are hundreds more people there than the Police, both troublemakers and not. All they can do is try and make it as safe as possible for people who decide to go into Notting Hill during the carnival.

TheDevilWearsPrimark I have to agree with you I was at the event and it was very scary. My DP got punched by a police officer as we were trying to find our way out. My DP being black was automatically confirmed as a trouble maker even thou we was merely walking through the crowds trying to get away the police officer did apologise when he realised that my DP had nothing to do with the trouble only after I said something to the cooper ( I am White) . We still reported the bastard.

A lot of the people making comments on here have never been to Notting hill carnival and experienced the trouble there with both civilians and police.

I find the police on a whole useless they are always there when you don't want them to be and when you do they take hours to turn up especially in London.

I will point out a lot of my family are in the police force. Did anyone watch that documentary on channel 4 last year I think when someone went undercover as a police officer and filmed what they got up to??

If you get scared in crowds why go?

It's well known for trouble and huge crowds FGS.

"the police officer did apologise when he realised that my DP had nothing to do with the trouble only after I said something to the cooper ( I am White) . We still reported the bastard."

Report him all you like, if he was trying to control the fracas and had genuine held belief that your partner was involved then he was within his rights.

What he was in his rights to punch my DP in the face? VictorianSqualor you are full of so much Shit! He had no reason to think that my DP was a trouble maker apart from his skin colour My DP was not fighting we was walking thru the crowds he was holding my hand.

Yes you do expect crowds but when the crowds turn violent you don't expect that and when you do not what people around you are capable of or what they are carrying then yes it can be very scary.

Do you not watch the news have you not seen how many people have been shot and stabbed in London in the last year?

Full of shit? If you say so.

You should look up Common law and Criminal law.

The police officer was only doing something wrong if using unreasonable force, which in a group riot is pretty hard to prove, and as he apologised then I would assume it was an accident, Police officers don't have to apologise to someone caught up in a riot, but then if your family are in the police, you'll know that.

Quote: "A lot of the people making comments on here have never been to Notting hill carnival and experienced the trouble there with both civilians and police."

Answered your own question really.

Punching someone in the face regardless if they are troublemakers or not is called assult. If I had punched a police officer in the face during the riots I would of been arrested for assulting a police officer so when did the rules change that it was ok for them to punch people.

The rules haven't changed dear.

If you were under threat of attack and punched someone in the face, you would be within your rights, as a civilian.

The police can use the same force afforded to self-defence whilst protecting others or preventing a crime from occurring.

My DP was walking with one hand holding mine and the other holding my bag he was not threating anyone the police officer come from the side of him and punched him in the face it was not self defence My Dp hadn't done anything to give the police officer reason to believe that he was a trouble maker.

Somehow methinks it is you that is full of shit.

A Police officer just wanders up to your partner, smacks him in the face for no reason, than apolo0gises?

Hmm. K.

threatening I ment.

Yes it was hardly like he wondered up on a empty street there was alot going on at the time I can give you the crime ref number if you don't believe me and yes when I spoke to the police officer he apoligised and said he was mistaken I took his police number and I reported him.

All a crime reference number means is that you reported a crime. I could call the police now and make something up and get a reference number.

Like I said, why would he apologise if he had purposely hit him knowing he was doing nothing wrong? More like your partner was in the middle of a scuffle or ten and got hit accidentally.

Seriously You was not there so how can you comment on something you do not know about?

Why assume he was in a scuffle?

"Punching someone in the face regardless if they are troublemakers or not is called assult"

actually punching someone who was a troublemaker in the face would not be assault if it was a means of protecting others from the troublemakers actions and to stop him from causing further trouble i.e. reasonable force.

and again in a riot even if the person punched was not a troublemaker that would not automatically make it an assault. all the police officer would have to prove was that he was reasonable in his actions and that he reasonably believed the person to be a troublemaker, so the test would be subjective. as was said before in a riot situation it would be fairly simple for a police man to argue that it was an honest mistake and that his beliefs were reasonable given the scenario he was trying to control.

i'm not saying any of this as a means of accussing you husband of anything untoward, just letting you know what to expect if you pursue your complaint, which i fully believe you should do as you feel you have been wronged.

Because otherwise why was he hit? You said yourself that the police officer didn't just saunter over and smack him one, the officer then later apologised.

Every account you give makes it more and more likely that your partner was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hurt accidentally.

I am not saying your partner did anything wrong btw, just that he was obviously in the vicinity of scuffles which the police were trying to deal with.

I wouldn't go within miles of the Notting Hill carnival. It sounds a fabulous event which goes tits up due to a sizeable minority of half-wits attending. God help the Police (now there is a job I'd NEVER do).
Maybe it needs to die the death - sad but if nobody is happy with the Police for trying to do an impossible job maybe it needs stopping so they don't have to cope with it every year.

oh yes regards a quote taken from a police officers personal facebook site, it's obvious that some bright spark went scowering for a quote that would shock and offend the public.
the quote was not made in any official capacity, it was lifted off a personal site that one poor sod was stupid enough to put it on.
it was a joke. the same way doctors joke about patients and death todeal with the frustrations of the job, but if suc quotes were made public would seem hurtfull,crass and uncaring. every profession has something quite serious that they joke about because it is a way of dealing with the stress it causes day to day.
so yes while it might seem crude and uncaring when publishe out of context it was most likely a joke between friends in which a cop moaned about having to deal with scumbags tearing up the place all day but then light heartedly suggested he was happy about it because he go bank holiday pay. i'd imagine he would have preferred the day off or else a normal days pay and no riots by absolute thugs in a residential area.